MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

9/1 Ricketts leaves search to GM

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is leaving the managerial search to GM Jim Hendry, and will go over the list once it’s whittled down. So far, Hendry has talked to former Cleveland manager Eric Wedge and was in Albuquerque with the Triple-A Iowa team to talk to its manager, Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg.

“It’s Jim’s responsibility to go out and find a new manager,” Ricketts told beat writers on Wednesday. “What he’ll do is he’ll create a short list and I’ll meet with everyone on the short list.”

Ricketts said the emphasis is on winning, not finding the best big name manager to help market the team.

“I don’t think we need a marquee name to sell tickets,” Ricketts said. “What we need is a team that produces on the field. And that’s really what’s most important to us.”

– Carrie Muskat

Share this:

Like this:

Related

2 Comments

what you need to do TOM is not leave every decision up to your GM who has put together the team that is playing right now… and that team and manager SUCK!! ABSOLUTELY SUCK!! thats why your attendance is going down… thats why you aren’t making as much money… With his statement of not needing the best big name manager that to me means that sandberg or some no name is going to get the job to save some money… HERE WE GO CUBS FANS its going to be a bumpy and depressing ride…..

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts is LEAVING the managerial search to GM Jim Hendry…while Cubs fans are LEAVING Wrigley Field… LEAVING, it’s a way of life. Tom Ricketts comment in the papers regarding the Cubs not needing a marquee name such as Sandberg (who’s Girardi if not a marquee name?) just to market the team is very unsettling. He is now dismissing Sandberg as a candidate and punishing him because of his “marquee” name? This sounds like the same old same old. Give us fans some credit Tom and don’t think us as lemmings. Should Sandberg get the managerial position most of us would think it is because of his winning ways managing YOUR minor league clubs for the past 3 years and because he is a rewarded, valued employee deserving of a promotion. Geez, how did golden boy Hendry get to be where he is if not for being promoted? Did Hendry START out with major league general managing experience? DUH. Anybody has to START as a “rookie” prior to gaining major league experience. If all the candidates that Hendry is “toying” with such as Listach, Gonzalez, Quade are all so attaractive where were they when Pinella or Baker were hired? Oh, no MAJOR leage experience. Well how much will all combined have by the start of the 2011 season. Do the math, geez. What a coincedence, NOW that the payroll is a factor Hendry may not spend 4 million on a manager, instead hiring Gonzalez, Quade or Listach because all of a sudden THESE guys are GOOD??? Come on, you guys are still blowing smoke at us loyal fans. Just because most of us can not afford to pay the highest ticket price in the majors to see our beloved team doesn’t make us idiots. Sandberg #1, Brenly #2, Girardi #3 All three are marquee names Tom so we can forget about them???

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.